by Sara V. Zook
“What? No,” I answered, now getting irritated with how calm and still she was being. Couldn’t she sense my urgency? “It was back there in the sand. It was standing right next to me. I don’t know what it was.”
“I was standing next to you over there,” she confessed.
“What?” My head spun from trying to process it all. “It couldn’t have been you. It was making a noise, like it was dragging something or part of itself. I don’t know.”
She reached out and touched my arm. “That was me. I was dragging a heavy sack behind me. I left it back there. I thought you were hurt.”
“Oh,” I managed to get out.
“Are you still frightened by me?” she asked.
Now I just felt irritated that I had ran away from a child. “Well, no, not now that I know what you are.”
“You know what I am?” She sounded alarmed now.
I couldn’t say she was a human, because the truth of the matter was I didn’t know what she was if she came from this place. “Jo was it?”
She hesitated.
I wondered why this little girl was out here by herself in the middle of the night anyway. “Thanks for checking on me,” I added, trying not to scare her off. Right now I didn’t want to be alone. I welcomed her company with open arms.
“Yeah, Jo.”
“I’m Anna,” I introduced myself. “I’m … lost.”
“Lost?” Jo sounded confused by the statement. “Why are you alone? Are you running from someone?”
“I was with someone,” I told her. “But I don’t know where he is now.” Jo’s silence was beginning to disturb me. She was a nervous, little creature, yet she was out here all alone in the dark.
“Are you sick? You don’t seem quite right.”
“I was scared …”
“No,” she interrupted. “That’s not it.”
We stood there for a few moments in the dark. I felt as if she could see me way better than I could her.
“What is your contribution?” Jo finally asked, her voice seeming to become more afraid of me by the minute.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I confessed. Here we were, two strangers in the dark, trying to figure one another out. For all I knew, she could have fangs and green skin, but from what I could tell, she seemed so much like a child.
“Where are you from?” she asked.
I hesitated. I might as well tell her. Maybe she would know how to get out of here. “Earth.”
Jo took a step backwards, tripped and fell on her back. I hesitantly extended my hand to her. Feeling what felt like a normal hand and fingers, I helped her up. Pulling her back to her feet seemed effortless as there wasn’t much weight on her small frame. Once standing, she still continued to move backwards.
“What is it? Did I say something wrong?” I whispered. I had obviously alarmed her.
“You’re human?”
“Yes,” I said slowly. “You know what that is?”
Jo inched away even more.
“Please!” I cried out. “Don’t go. I don’t know how to get back. Please, I’m hungry. Can you at least tell me how to get food?” I felt myself move forward, closer to her.
The girl stopped. “I can’t help you.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“You’re a human.”
Human. I wondered what the word meant to her, but she obviously wasn’t going to stick around long enough for me to question her further about the subject. “Look, Jo.” I forced a smile in case she really could see me. “I just need a little help getting food. Then I won’t bother you again. I’m going to just get something to eat and then go right back over …” I turned my head to the left towards the beach. It was gone. I turned my entire body around as my eyes frantically searched for the water. Then I looked down in horror. I was no longer standing in the golden grasses. They, too, were nowhere to be seen. I was standing on solid, barren ground. I lifted my foot and put it back down again. I could hear the noise of the dry ground crumbling beneath my shoe. “Where did it go?”
“The sand and water?” she asked.
“Yes.” My eyes kept scanning the area behind me over and over again, hoping with all my might that it would return. “How do I get back to it?”
Jo exhaled loudly. “You can’t.”
“What?” The word stuck in my throat. “This doesn’t make sense. It was just right there …” My voice trailed off. I stared out into the nothingness. It felt like I was in some sort of nightmare only never waking up. I closed my eyes tight. Emry had to have transported by himself unknowingly, but he would be trying, I knew, to figure out how to get back to me on the beach. “Please.” My voice began to shake along with my entire body. “I know nothing about this place. I’m begging you.”
Jo was silent for a long while, but she didn’t back away any farther.
“Can you just point me in the right direction?”
“I don’t know what you want,” she finally said.
I wanted Emry to be here. He’d know what to do. He could take us both back to Earth. I decided I should just start small with this girl. She was obviously skittish near me now that she knew I was human. I just needed to gain a little trust from her. Who knew if the next someone I met would be as nice as she was, or even if there would be another someone.
I licked my dry lips. “Food. Anything. Something. Please.”
“Ok,” she whispered.
A small amount of relief washed over me. “Yeah?” I asked, still afraid to get too close to her in case she’d take off running.
“I walk fast,” she warned me.
I nodded. “I’ll keep up.”
“Stay close.”
I took another look behind me at what used to be a beautiful, familiar place where Emry had first exposed his secret to me, where we had first kissed and promised each other we’d figure it all out together in our new sense of freedom. A kind of nothingness stared right back at me as a pulsing ache began to grow in my temples. How would Emry ever be able to find me now?
Chapter 2
Jo was a very fast walker, but I kept up even though I felt like I was mostly jogging.
As morning changed the darkness into a pale light, I was relieved to see that she was just a normal little girl. Skinny and short with long brown straight hair that reached her waist and fluttered in the wind as she moved. Her clothes were very worn, appearing to have been cut or ripped at the sleeves and waist. She looked too fragile to be out here on her own.
We didn’t speak for what seemed like hours, just walked on. Exhaustion settled into the depths of my out of shape physique.
Everything was barren. No signs of plants or life anywhere. A ground composed of grayish-colored dust crunched beneath my feet with every step. The horizon was full of more lifeless colors, everything except the sky, which still remained a pale red with bright, enormous stars.
I didn’t know how I felt. Mostly a numbness consumed me. This was not how I expected Evadere to be, nor anticipated to explore it like this. I thought Emry and I would be walking for miles through endless golden grasses until we reached another beach even more illuminating than the last. I thought this planet was going to be rich with colors, possibly some my eyes had never seen before, a place of wondrous magic and mystery. The realization was setting in that Evadere was not a place of escape. It was one of disappointment and loneliness. I had strayed from the one place Emry could find me, and now even that had disappeared. My mind whirled with possible scenarios of what the future would hold for me here, most of them not pleasant thoughts. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, how anyone survived here, let alone by myself, and I couldn’t figure out a way to get back to Emry. I had no powers. Tears stung my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand and continued on. Tears would change nothing, and I didn’t want to scare away Jo. This girl was my only hope at the moment. We hadn’t seen anyone else since walking most of the night and morning. A thick fog began to hover a few fe
et above the ground. I missed Earth. I allowed my head to slump down, my eyes cast down to my feet.
“There.”
I jerked my head up. She pointed to a place so far ahead of us, I could barely see it in the distance.
“What is that?” I asked, my throat burning from the dust that had been kicked up along the way.
“Where we can get food,” she said, almost in a whisper.
All I could make out was a green dot. “There are others there?”
She nodded, her dark eyes large in anticipation.
“Are they friendly?” I squeezed my right hand into a tight ball.
“Not to us.”
Before I could ask anything more, Jo was back to walking fast again.
At the first sight of trees, I felt a warm exhilaration zip through my veins, but at the same time, the sight was eerie. The ground just went from dusty, lifeless trails drained of color to bright greens and dark browns as plants swayed in the gentle breeze ahead and the dirt looked so fresh and full of nutrients it was as if someone painted this glorious scene on a canvas. It was like a hologram. As soon as my bare feet touched the soft, lush grass, a tingle danced its way upon my skin. Evadere was back to being breathtaking once again.
“Lower yourself,” Jo commanded.
I instantly crouched down behind a gigantic tree that was almost as round as it was tall. I peered around the side of it, wanting to see more of what this place beheld.
Jo grabbed my arm sternly. “Careful,” she warned.
I raised my eyebrows in concern. “What is this place?”
She wrapped her arms around her knees in a child-like manner and rocked on the balls of her feet. “These are the farming contributors.”
“Contributors.” I let the word roll off of my tongue for a moment. “That’s the second time you’ve said it. What does it mean exactly?”
She peered at me, giving me a look as if judging my intelligence. “This group of contributors grows vegetables and fruits for the planet to eat.”
The ground looked very fertile and good for growing crops. “How does this happen?”
“What?”
“The ground just went from dust to grass. Where is the boundary?” I questioned her.
“Where the contributors’ powers end.”
My mind was spinning. I was hungry, tired, worried and now trying to figure out how a whole new planet existed and continued to exist. I felt a little dizzy and then made a quick attempt to shake it off. “They contribute food …” I began.
“Uh huh,” Jo replied.
“For everyone else?”
She nodded. “For all other contributors. Not Scaves.”
“Scaves?”
“Contributors hate Scaves.”
Jo climbed back into a standing position. She pressed one hand against the tree bark and carefully peeked out and around the massive plant.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She put a finger up to her lips to silence me. Then, without taking her eyes off of whatever it was she was looking at, she motioned for me to come over to her.
“Jo?” I whispered.
“We have to make our move. Now.”
I felt my eyebrows move upwards but couldn’t find the courage to speak. She was being so cautious with her movements, and I wanted so desperately to know what she was looking at … or for.
“Ready?” she hissed.
“What …” Before I could finish, I watched frail, little Jo, dart off and away from the protection of the tree. Rushing to her side, I found myself in the middle of a field with endless rows of crops. Every plant extended upwards from the luscious dirt as they flourished perfectly from the ground beneath them. I touched a leaf as I allowed the velvety warmth to caress my fingertips. The smell of ripened fruits filled the air with a sweet aroma. I inhaled deeply and pressed my face toward the sun.
Sudden movement caught my eye as one of the plants in the corner of the field shook. I could make out the form of a person bent over toward the ground.
“Quick!” Jo hissed, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her. We rushed over to the nearest hiding spot by a broad gray building. Jo dove onto the ground behind it, still gripping my hand.
My feet stumbled over themselves, tumbling me face first onto the ground beside her.
“Ouch,” I cried out.
“Shhh!” Jo shot me a disapproving glare.
I winced from the sudden pain in my face where my skin had scraped against the tiny, jagged rocks surrounding the building. I touched my cheek and stared at the return of blood on my fingertips. Climbing to my feet, I crouched down beside Jo. She was peeking out from the side of the building toward the person we had seen that had startled her. I propped myself up to be slightly taller than her so I could see, too.
This particular part of Evadere was very quiet. I wondered where all the rest of the people were. There stood a single person, a middle-aged male, inspecting the plants of the field and collecting the ripened fruit and placing them into a sack that was positioned on the ground nearby. I watched curiously as one of the plants was hunched over, its leaves wilted as if in need of water. The man made his way over to it. He touched the base of the plant with his hand, and I gasped as the once wounded plant quickly turned to a deep shade of green like the others around it, the leaves uncurled and became full and it stood straight up toward the sun as if completely revived.
“How did …?” I looked questioningly toward Jo.
“He’s a contributor,” she replied in a low whisper.
She continued to use this term. Still not fully able to comprehend what had just happened, I leaned against the wall of the building. I wrapped my arms around my knees.
“Jo,” I said a little louder.
She immediately covered my mouth with her hand. I jerked back in disgust as I could taste the dirt from her palm in my mouth.
“You need to be silent,” she growled, her anger increasing.
I lowered my eyebrows. “Why don’t we just go over to him and tell him we’re hungry. Maybe he’ll just give us some food.”
Jo’s eyes widened in alarm. “Are you insane?”
“No,” I quickly replied. “It’s just … he looks harmless and all.”
Jo positioned herself so that we were face to face. She got close to me so that our noses were almost touching and I could smell her foul breath in my nostrils. She extended her arm out and pointed toward the man in the field. “That harmless contributor out there will kill you and me without hesitation.” She continued to look me straight in the eye to confirm my understanding. She was genuinely terrified of being here. “Understand, human?”
I gritted my teeth at the way she said human. It was obviously meant to demean me and the way I had perceived the situation at hand. “Yeah,” I managed to say.
“I need you to listen to everything I tell you to do and just do it, so we can get food and make it out of here alive.” She pulled herself away from my face.
I wiped tiny droplets of sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and allowed my head to lean against the wall. “I just don’t understand, Jo.”
“You humans really are dense, aren’t you?”
I narrowed my eyes at the once seemingly sweet and kind girl who now seemed to have this real edge to her, a bite.
“You can’t have everything you want right this minute,” she continued. “We don’t have time to sit here and sort things through. We go on instinct. We survive.”
With those jagged words still stabbing my ego, I pressed my lips tightly together and rose to my feet, making a solemn attempt to forget the dull ache on my cheek. Eyeing me still, Jo stood and then slowly went back over to the edge of the wall and looked past it. We stayed there for a few moments, me behind her staring out into the distance, into the nothingness that we had just come from in order to get here. I thought about Emry just then. I wondered where he was and how crazy he must be going not being able to find me knowing that I was still h
ere. This world was odd and so unfamiliar, yet I knew I had to be persistent and try to understand it all. I had to figure out a way to get back to Emry. Then a haunting thought came to mind. Perhaps he was back on Evadere and in search for me in this awful place all alone. At least I had Jo. He would have no one.
“The contributor has left. Now,” Jo commanded, rushing from the safety of the building and out into the openness of the field.
I followed as fast as I could, struggling to keep up with her quickness. The field was desolate. Not a soul in sight. The limbs of the lush plants whipped my bare arms and legs as I hurried through them toward Jo who was just a few feet ahead as she neared a section that was yet to be picked and still had fruit hanging from it.
“Do this,” Jo whispered, her eyes wide in urgency.
I watched her flip the bottom of her shirt inside out as she tore fruit from its stem and tossed it into the sack she had created. She plucked off a few more before pulling the bottom up tighter and trapping the food inside her shirt. She looked up and gave me another hard stare. Realizing I was standing there being a dense human again, I quickly tried to recover by copying her. As I grasped the first fruit into my palm, I couldn’t help but notice its perfection. It was round and red, not a single mark or bruise on its skin. The story of Adam and Eve entered my mind as I held it, still connected to the stem, perplexed by the fruit’s beauty and marveled in its forbiddenness. My stomach twisted in hunger as I imaged its delicious juice on my tongue, yet it seemed as though once I had plucked it from the plant, things would change somehow. Emotionally overwhelmed at the sudden feeling of guilt that now filled every ounce of me, I looked back up at Jo who had jumped over into another row of plants and was collecting a smaller kind of fruit, tucking them away in her shirt that now bulged in front of her. Shaking off the weird sensation that the appearance of the fruit had given me, I thoughtlessly jerked it from its stem and placed it in my shirt. I bent down to retrieve more fruit from the bottom near the ground when I heard a shrill scream.
“Anna!”
I searched for Jo who seemed to be far ahead now as she ran full speed through the field, backtracking toward the border of where the grass met dust. Surprised by the sight of her leaving, I turned around to see the man we had seen earlier, picking fruit. He was standing merely feet away from me, his face twisted into a scowl. My eyes widened. There were two others coming up behind him, and I saw others still hurrying to see what was going on. I was going to be trapped if I didn’t do something quick, but my feet seemed glued to the ground, my stomach feeling as if it had just lurched into my throat. My hands fell to my sides releasing my shirt as the beautiful fruit rolled out and smashed onto the ground in front of me. I stared down now as the juice spilled, its color a deep red, like luscious blood seeping into the dirt below.